More Xbox One Game Demos Will Arrive In The Future, Says Major Nelson

With digital game prices now matching their retail counterparts, the one thing that a lot of gamers are concerned about is whether or not there will be more demos available for games so they don't have to take a risk and purchase a game they may not like. Thankfully, Microsoft won't get in the way of developers providing playable samples of their Xbox One titles.

OXM picked up the news from Now Gamer, where Larry “Major 'Flip Switcher' Nelson” Hryb responded to an angry gamer who noticed that there was no demo for Peggle 2, where the Major stated that...

"It is (and always has been) up to game developers to do demos for their own games,"... "[There'll] be more demos for Xbox One as the platform goes forward."

The lack of demos can really detour some gamers from wanting to pledge their allegiance to a day-one purchase. Alternatively, there was the one story that perpetuated throughout the gaming community about game demos actually hurting game sales since people could get a small taste of the title and stay far away from purchasing it on day one, as noted by The Escapist.

However, having a demo and knowing what you're getting into and being able to inform your friends about the game in an honest manner pre-release would prevent situations like Aliens: Colonial Marines from happening.

One of the big problems with game demos, however, is that they eat into the development cycle and splits the team's efforts since demos require their own kind of dedicated QA to ensure that they work the way they're intended. It's that fine balance of choosing whether to do a demo or focus on getting the game finished.

Microsoft is obviously pushing for some sort of interactive media for many of the titles available and coming to the Xbox One, but not all of them will have the demos gamers are looking for. As noted by Microsoft executive Marc Whitten...

"Not all [digital] games will have demos like Xbox Live Arcade games have had on Xbox 360," … "That said, we are going to work on lots of ways to make it easy for you to find and try new games on the service."